It wasn’t simply a ‘matinee’ performance!

August 6, 2023

Scripture: Matthew 14: 13-21

Jesus knew John pretty much from the very beginning.  It was John who was the unborn baby in Elizabeth’s womb who it is said, ‘Jumped for joy’ at the sound of her cousin Mary’s voice.  And surely growing up Jesus kept tabs on his wild and radical cousin, for it was John who first took up the public mantle of proclaiming justice and calling for repentance from the Jews.

And it was also John to whom Jesus went at the very start of his own ministry on the banks of the Jordan River where John had been baptizing scores of people. Jesus asked John to baptize him as well, and though John at first refused to do so, he consented to Jesus’ request.

From that time on the two men continued their own ministries for the next several years…they knew of each other’s work but did not really cross paths much, as John’s calling was more to be a front man for his cousin, preparing people’s hearts to receive his message of love and salvation. The two men’s ability to offend those in positions of authority and power however was similar to be sure. John’s ‘in-your-face’ style of calling out those who were working at cross-purposes to the ways of God, resulted in his being arrested and thrown into prison…in particular for what he had said about King Herod.

King Herod was the Jewish leader who served at the behest of Rome. He was in fact a puppet king, whose sole responsibility was to make very sure that his fellow Jews did not cause any trouble for Rome. In order to ensure that his orders were carried out, he oppressed his fellow Jews and enforced a burdensome system of taxation, designed to keep his charges both poor, weak, and unable to rise up and cause any trouble.

It seems that King Herod was in an illicit relationship with his brother Phillip’s wife Herodias, and stories and rumors had begun to circulate about them.  Upon hearing of it, John called him out, accusing Herod of committing adultery with her. When Herodias heard of John’s accusations she became bitterly angry with him and began to search for a way to silence this outspoken cousin of Jesus for good.

Her chance came when Herod threw an elaborate party for a number of important guests. Herodias arranged for her daughter Salome to perform a very suggestive and seductive dance for all of the guests after the party had been well underway for some time, and after much wine had been consumed. Evidently Salome was quite the dancer and Herod was so moved by her performance that in his drunken stupor he offered to give her anything she wanted in all his kingdom. 

Carefully coached by her mother beforehand, Salome drew near to Herod and requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod was distressed by the trap, but could not go back on his promise and had the young woman’s request fulfilled right then and there. Upon receiving the severed head of John, Salome took it and presented it to her mother.  After the party broke up, John’s disciples came and took the body of their teacher and properly buried it with reverence and honor.

For his part, Jesus had been working overtime of late, his ministry really beginning to make an impact throughout the whole region. Hardly a day went by that he was not besieged with crowds asking to see more and more signs and wonders from this prophet who claimed to speak for God. To say Jesus was tired and quite possibly overwhelmed would not be stretching the truth at all. He knew his time on earth was fast drawing to a close, and the drive within him to finish what he had begun, and to leave his disciples prepared to carry on the work he had started was relentless.

But on the day he learned that his cousin had been brutally murdered by Herod as a party favor, I imagine something finally broke within him…something finally gave way, causing him to seek out silence and solitude in order to mourn his cousin’s death in private. Taking a small boat across the lake, he found a deserted spot in which to be all alone for a time. And I am not sure who it was that told of his whereabouts to all those still seeking after him, but it was not long before the crowds found out where he was and surrounded him once more. 

But I do know that Jesus…was still Jesus, and upon seeing the distress and hunger in the hearts and minds of all those who sought him, our passage says that once again he had pity, and went right back to work healing them and sharing his unique style of compassionate and curative care with all those who had sought him out. Graciously welcoming them into his presence, Jesus spent the whole day caring for them all, and healing all of their sick or injured.

And as the day began to draw to a close the disciples of Jesus came to him with a concern that all those who had come seeking after him must surely be hungry and thirsty after such a long day.  They asked Jesus if they ought to send them away into a nearby town, so that they might purchase some food for themselves. Gently but firmly Jesus replied…‘There is no need for them to go anywhere…you yourselves give them something to eat.’  Surely they must have looked at one another in disbelief…not only did they not have the resources to buy enough food for so many, even the logistics of what Jesus seemed to be asking of them seemed downright impossible.

Jesus did not budge at all however as he awaited his disciple’s response. One of them protested, ‘But master, all we have are a few small loaves and a couple of fish…surely that is far from enough to give everyone here even a little’.  For you see, in the crowd gathered listening to Jesus there were some 5,000 men, along with many of their wives and children. However, the disciple’s response didn’t seem to faze Jesus even for a moment as he replied, ‘Bring me the bread and fish.’

Turning again to the crowd, Jesus instructed them all to take a seat on the hillside where they were gathered. Then taking the five loaves and the two small fish, Jesus looked towards heaven, blessed and broke the two loaves into pieces, and gave them to his disciples to pass around to the waiting crowd. Taking the small pieces of bread and fish the disciples in turn passed them out as they now miraculously multiplied in the very act of giving it away.

Everyone ate and had their fill there sitting on the grass, all marveling at the abundance of blessings that seemed to accompany Jesus wherever he went and however he ministered.  And at the end of this most extraordinary meal the disciples went around and collected all the remaining pieces of bread and fish, filling up fully twelve baskets with what they collected. This is the gospel story of our Lord for today…thanks be to God.

*****

‘You…you yourselves, give them something to eat’, Jesus said to his shocked and stunned disciples at the end of what had been a very long and tiresome day. And though at first they questioned his request, they soon realized that Jesus had the whole day firmly in his control, and had planned out his response well in advance.  And while this is one of the most well-known stories in the gospels, in fact being the only one recounted in all four of the gospel accounts, it also offers multiple points of entry for one seeking to learn from this Lord of ours.

I would like to focus on two aspects in particular…two points which are probably often overlooked or ignored.  The first of these is the generosity of Jesus when it comes to giving of himself, even when it is inconvenient or a difficult time to do so…and second, I want to consider the actual words he spoke to his disciples late that afternoon. And while these are two distinct points, in truth they are fully dependent on one another, they each need each other in order for the story…and for our own calling as disciples to hang together.

Several weeks back I talked of ‘busy-ness’ and how hard it is to find quiet time away from all that seems to be pressuring us to do this or that, as well as to do so in the proper order and priority. I said that in order to be true to the ministry we each are called to, we need to find a balance between all of the exterior calls on our life, and the interior urgings of the Spirit that are constantly calling us into a deeper relationship with holiness.  And that same push pull between God and self carries the same weight in our passage today.

And that is because with a life of faith there is often a struggle between the urge to care for oneself and the demands of Jesus’ call to love one another.  And as a consequence we too, like Jesus in our story today, may get to a point where we just need to stop, to get away from it all and find a quiet place where we might take a breath, and perhaps be renewed.

I remember as a young kid how hard it was at times to hear words of instruction or particular requests from my mom.  They were always sensible things like ‘Please pick up your room David’, or ‘Please set the table’…or do any other sort of very normal task. And it was not as though I did not want to do them, in fact sometimes I knew well in advance that I probably should have done them already, thereby saving my mother the trouble of having to ask me, but it seemed that so often those requests came at just the wrong time…either at a time when I just wanted to be left alone, or more likely wanted to be able to do things that I wanted to do.  And even though what I was being asked to do was not difficult or at all unreasonable, I wanted to do what I wanted to do…not the things my mom wanted of me right…at…that…moment.

And there was many a time when I felt somehow wronged as she insisted that I stop what I was doing, and get up and do as she had requested. Eventually I learned that the things she was asking were in fact very reasonable, and things I should do for my own sake. But still, I wanted to do them when I wanted to…I did not want to be asked to drop everything else to do some little thing or other. It was only later on when I myself was a parent and seeking to raise my own children to be responsible, that I realized such instruction was all a part of growing up, and that learning responsibility sometimes required oft-repeated lessons.

In many ways back then my mom was standing in for God, teaching me that there are voices I needed to hear and to heed, in order to make good and right decisions in life. And as I grew older and found myself being pursued more and more by this Lord of ours, I realized that this new voice of the Holy was also asking me to do things that were not always comfortable or convenient. In some sense they were not always comfortable because I find it is fairly easy to lose sight of the fact that ultimately God is the one who provides all I have and all I need.

Yes I have skills and talents, and yes I use them for personal gain, but in truth those skills, talents, and the opportunities to use them are gifts as well. I find I need to remember that if the Spirit asks me to give of myself, or of my resources, that those resources still belong to God, and I really have no right to fear that giving, will somehow leave me wanting. God provides for God’s work to be done, even if it means using things we think belong exclusively to us.

And God’s call may at times seem inconvenient, because I also lose sight of the fact that it is not just about me. But rather it is about how I am being asked to stand in a place between God’s grace and a particular person or need.  I forget that each day is a gift, and that it needs to be offered back to God in thankfulness each morning…that each new day presents a chance to participate in the work of God anew instead of simply pursuing my own agenda or desires.

I imagine that the disciples, much like Jesus, were also tired and wrung out there in the field on that hot, dry afternoon.  I am pretty sure that they probably wanted to be left alone for a change as well, to have some time away from the pressing crowds. So I imagine that when they came to Jesus and presented him with the dilemma of the crowd’s hunger and thirst, they may actually have hoped that he would go along with the solution they had come up with…that he would agree that they should go off into a nearby town and fend for themselves.

But instead, Jesus acted so like Jesus, and turned the incident into a profound teaching moment. I think that we probably have heard this story so many times that we may no longer really listen to it. I think we tend to quickly focus in on the multiple baskets of bread and fish virtually overflowing as excited and amazed disciples tried to push their way through the crowds…I think we look only at the miracle of multiplication, rather than on everything else that was going on.

To be sure the bread and fish thing was amazing in itself, but the gospels are not trying to tell us simply of the powers of this one man from Nazareth, but rather seeking to show us that Jesus truly was and is Immanuel…that Jesus was fully God with us, and that the things he was doing were indicative of the true nature of our God.  In truth, I think this story is as much about us and our own calling, as it is about Jesus. Which brings us to our second point of focus…to the words Jesus actually spoke to his disciples. ‘You give them something to eat’, he told them.

Which was not at all what they expected to hear I am sure, and in fact, not something that was convenient, or comfortable.  In fact, in some sense their first reaction to Jesus was actually to say, ‘no, we can’t do that!’ Sort of how I felt when my mom would ask just one more thing of me so long ago. While the disciples did not actually say ‘no’ to Jesus, they made it clear that this was not something they were prepared for, or felt they were equipped to do at all. Jesus had gone over the top this time…this was a job for him, not for them.

But Jesus persisted saying, ‘Bring the bread and fish to me’. You see, he was still teaching the disciples that their calling as disciples was to be in constant relationship with him. In order that he might work wonders through them, allowing the steadfast provision of God, to be a tool of their own work and ministry.  Jesus was not a one-trick pony or a flash in the pan miracle-worker, rather Jesus was their teacher and Lord, the one who was seeking to fashion disciples who would be able to carry on his work of loving unconditionally long after he was gone. This was not just one more ‘Saturday afternoon show’, but rather a moment of instructive grace meant to prepare his disciples for the work ahead.

‘You give them something to eat’, Jesus told them, knowing that they were truly capable, if they put their heart and soul into it, and if they would turn to God in their need and draw deeply from the well of living water that never runs dry. Jesus had complete faith in his disciples, he had given them the tools to do the work of God…they just needed to start doing it.

And, as Jesus taught and trained his hesitant disciples that afternoon, so he does also with us.  We too are called to faithfully share and give of all we have, and all we are, to others. Trusting that the loaves we have, and the fish we offer in faith will be fully and abundantly sufficient to accomplish the task before us.

Indeed the ‘miracle of the feeding of the five thousand’ is still awesome and amazing, and it is still fun to imagine the surprise of all who were there that day as everyone was fed by the disciples and all the leftovers were gathered up. But let us remember that this other, instructive way of hearing what went on, is perhaps the most important lesson Jesus sought to share.

So if we find ourselves asking, ‘What should we do Lord? How is it that you want to care for those around us in need?  There are so many, and the needs are so great, so far beyond our own limited resources’…

Listen carefully as Jesus surely will reply…‘You go, you give them something to eat, you go and feed them. For I have taught you, I have trained you, I have given you the wherewithal, the means, the passion, and the ability. I have given you an example, therefore, go and do likewise’

…let us always reply in turn, ‘Yes Lord, I will go there for you’… 

…amen